1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of refrigerators and, more particularly, to an enhanced roller system for supporting a food storage drawer, such as a crisper bin, for sliding movement within a refrigerator compartment.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the art of refrigerators, particularly household refrigerators, it is often desirable to create varying humidity and/or temperature storage zones to enhance the preservation of different food items. For instance, it is common to accommodate the storage requirements for certain food items, such as dairy products, meats, fruits and vegetables, by forming separately enclosed storage areas within a fresh food compartment. In most instances, these storage areas are designed to be maintained at temperatures which are different from the temperature of the remainder of the fresh food compartment.
In at least the case of fruits and vegetables, it is typically desirable to isolate these food items from direct contact with a flow of cooling air, especially any cold air flowing into the fresh food compartment from a freezer compartment of the refrigerator, mainly because this cold air can be fairly dry. Therefore, in order to isolate the fruits and vegetables from the desiccating effects of the cold air so as to maintain the moisture content of the fruits and vegetables, it has heretofore been proposed to provide a specialized storage receptacle, such as a crisper, within a refrigerator fresh food compartment. A crisper generally takes the form of a slidable bin which is sealed to maintain a relatively high humidity level, while the walls of the bin are chilled to establish a desirable temperature within the bin.
Many different designs have been proposed in the art to support such storage receptacles for sliding movement. Basically, there are three main designs: one providing for side flanges on the receptacle to be directly, slidably supported on guide tracks; another employing a roller system wherein each side of the receptacle is mounted through front and rear rollers for movement between extended and retracted positions; and the last design employing ball bearing glides. In general, the direct sliding supports are functional but permit multidirectional movement of the drawer, resulting in a noisy and somewhat cumbersome arrangement. Even the best known roller systems still exhibit hard surface contact along sides of the drawer which cause friction and noise. Although bearing glides exhibit a large improvement in strength and quality perception, they are expensive and can have lubrication and other issues in the cold environment of refrigerators. With the above in mind, there still exists a need for an enhanced roller system for supporting a food storage bin, such as a crisper drawer, for movement within a refrigerator compartment.